Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot have successfully made AI chatbots mainstream and serve as viable alternatives to standard web search engines. In turn, the standard search engines from those companies (along with alternative ones) have adopted some AI elements. AI can palpably improve the web search experience, and I’ve found Copilot a productivity booster when it comes to research. Whereas I’ve had to pore over multiple web pages in standard search results, I can now often find the kernel of knowledge I’m after with just one text prompt. Additionally, if an initial answer isn’t quite what I’m looking for, AI search bots keep track of my previous requests to give my follow-up questions context. That means I don’t have to keep rephrasing my whole query the way I do with standard search or legacy AI tools like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.But Copilot and Gemini aren’t our focus here. Instead, we are looking at search engines that wholly rely on AI for their results.Generative AI and chatbots typically rely on large language models (LLM) that train on a set of information with a specific cutoff date. The search engines we highlight here also use LLMs to understand the text you enter, but rather than basing their results on a fixed knowledge base, they scan the live web for up-to-date information and use AI to generate the best answer. The better ones even show you their sources so you can double-check them.The big kahuna of generative AI, OpenAI, is beta testing SearchGPT, which, like Copilot, Gemini, and the tools here, taps and digests current web info to inform its results and provide sources. When that becomes available, we’ll evaluate it for this roundup.
Recommended by Our Editors
Keep in mind that, like all the generative AI tools, the search engines listed below might make mistakes, just like humans do occasionally. Read on to explore the most intriguing AI search engines we’ve come across.
Best for General Search
Andi bills itself as “search for the next generation” and, unlike many of the options here, is well-suited for consumers, not just businesses. It has a very user-friendly interface and even greets you upon access.The search engine shows its best-guess result in a main response area, along with additional web links in a side panel. You can sort the responses by Results, News, and Video, depending on the query. You can also search within your results and display them as cards, tiles, a list, or even as classic blue Google links.Andi is less conversational than popular AI chatbots and doesn’t maintain the context of follow-up queries as well. It won’t immediately write a cover letter, give you a complete recipe for asparagus au gratin, or plan a trip itinerary either, though it can find quality sites that help you do those things. It sometimes offers a Generate Text button at the bottom of the results that uses generative AI to create such content; you can tell it to Retry a prompt, but it won’t accept any follow-up instructions. Andi also won’t generate images for you or give you a choice of LLMs (the site uses Claude). It does at least produce knowledge graphs to deliver more accurate results.According to the site, “Andi will always be free and anonymous for everyone.” However, the company has plans for paid business accounts. There are no ads at present, but the site documentation states that it intends to share revenue with content-creator sites. Andi is still technically in pre-beta, but it’s available online for anyone to try.
Best for Targeted Search Categories
Komo has a simple interface but helpful tools, such as a Mind Map that shows a tree chart of your results and an Explore button that displays thumbnails for related searches. If you sign in, you can choose an AI model: the basic Komo Search, GPT-4o mini (faster), GPT-4o (deeper knowledge), Claude 3 Haiku (fast), and Claude 3.5 Sonnet (strong reasoning). For standard search purposes, the Komo Search model should serve you well; its documentation says it excels at query understanding, document ranking, and answer generation.Another helpful tool is Komo’s Personas: Explainer, TL;DR, Planner, Quote Collector, Copy Writer, Equity Researcher, and more. These provide a way to tune responses to your needs, and I haven’t seen equivalent options in other AI chatbots aside from Microsoft Copilot’s less specific Balanced, Creative, and Precise choices. You can also select a Data Corpus, such as Web, Academic, Socials, News, Video, and Blog.You can use Komo for free but must pay to access special features. The Basic level, which costs $12 per month (billed annually), gets you Personae. The $24-per-month Premium tier (also billed annually) adds generative AI model selection and more advanced query sessions.No dedicated apps are available, but you can install Komo as a PWA on mobile or desktop platforms.
Best for News Topics
Perplexity is comparable with Microsoft’s Copilot. At one point, it even called one of its features Copilot! Like that tool, Perplexity shows source links for its results and lets you save your previous queries. Those are cleverly named Threads (not to be confused with the Twitter-like Threads social network). Perplexity’s result page is busier than those of most of the other sites here since it includes buy tiles and source links with images. On one search, I didn’t see the answer until I scrolled down. Another difference compared with most of the AI search sites is that Perplexity has a Discover page that looks very similar to Google News.Perplexity Free account users get unlimited Quick searches and five Pro searches per day. Pro accounts cost $20 per month. The Pro (formerly called Copilot) searches are longer interactions with AI-generated follow-up questions. All the AI chatbots I’ve used suggest follow-up questions, so this is hardly unique.Perplexity offers apps for Android and iOS, as well as a browser extension for Chromium-based browsers but not Firefox or Safari.
Best for Marketing Professionals
Waldo pitches its business-targeted AI search as a research assistant that lets you “become an expert in seconds.” It specializes in pitches, brand strategy, and other such corporate tasks. To this end, the site includes prepackaged workflows, such as Brand Audit, Industry Profile, and Cultural Trends, across 14 categories. Some of these workflows take time: When I asked for Cultural Trends about Sports, for instance, the report took a full minute to finish. When it’s done, Waldo emails the report to you. Another mode is Data Search. When I entered MLB, the site delivered info on the latest goings on in the bat and ball sport. Filter options above the result included Datapoints, Key Text, and Quotes. When I searched for the best dividend stocks, Waldo generated several paragraphs detailing specific choices. A sidebar to the right of the main window shows the sources.Waldo is the priciest AI search option here. Freelancer accounts start at a hefty $149 per month (billed annually) or $199 on a month-to-month basis. If it helps bootstrap your new business, it could be well worth the price.Waldo suggests you install its browser extension, but I’m not a big fan of this because extensions can access all of your browsing activity, not just that related to their functions. In fact, according to the entry in my browser’s Extensions Settings, the Waldo extension can “read and change all your data on websites you visit” and defaults to the “on all sites” choice.
Best for Custom Business Search Agents
With a focus on business use, You.com calls itself an “AI productivity platform” and leverages existing LLMs. It offers a limited free option, but you need to sign in to an account to access chat history, upload files, and create custom agents. A free account limits you to a 16K context window (aka tokens), meaning the AI will consider only that much input in formulating its answers. I didn’t get very far in testing with a free account before I got a message prompt to upgrade. The $180-per-year Pro subscription gets you access to GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet LLMs, file uploads of up to 25MB per query, a 64K context window, and research and custom agents. The $300-per-year Team plan prevents your input from being used to train the AI, offers zero-data retention, and increases the context window to 200K.You.com starts you with four buttons above the search box: Research, Creative, Genius (for multi-step problems), and “Build your own custom agent.” But you can select industries for more suggestions, including Data Analysis, Engineering, Finance, Marketing, Product, and Sales. Each of these choices displays three different suggestion buttons. For example, under Sales, the Sales Emailer choice will write an email for a new contact, to reengage customers, or draft a partnership proposal. These suggestions might be better for some users than a blank text box. After I provided the target customer and topic in testing, You.com generated a courteous, professional email. The site uses ChatGPT-4.o for results and display ads. Unlike Google Gemini, You.com could recommend specific stocks when I asked for good dividend-bearing ones.You.com offers apps for both mobile platforms, chatbots for WhatsApp and Telegram, and desktop extensions for Chromium and Firefox web browsers.
